Chinese customers scramble to buy iPhone 5 overseas
Huang Pei-chun and Staff Reporter 2012-09-25 15:40
An Apple Store in Hong Kong. (Photo/Xinhua)
Apple's second-quarter financial statement shows that sales of the company's devices in the Greater China region have tripled year-on-year, while at Apple's flagship store in New York, one out of every three buyers of the new iPhone 5 is from mainland China.
Apple has yet to release its new smartphone in mainland China, but numerous people in the country are trying their hardest to get their hands on the device via parallel imports.
On the day the iPhone 5 went on sale in the US on Friday, the Apple Store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, as well as other branches throughout the city, were crowded with customers, many of them Chinese.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said, "This is an incredible season in China. For those with a true understanding of China, the market is a bonanza."
Grey-market iPhone 5s have gone on sale in China for 9,000-10,000 yuan (US$1,430-$1,580), almost double the formal retail price, but supply still cannot meet demand.
A vendor in Beijing's Zhongguancun IT district says he is selling more than 10 iPhone 5s a day, despite his difficulties in securing supplies, since sales in Hong Kong — where the device also went on sale on Friday — are restricted via local ID card registrations and some wholesalers over the border in Shenzhen are restricting the supply of the device in order to maximize their profits.
